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Parallel's gleaming electro-pop visions

The diminished size of Toronto's electronic-music scene is often lamented by those nostalgic for the days when they could find 15,000 other ravers to party with on a given record, yet the influence of those years now extends well beyond the confines of strictly &quot;dance&quot; genres.

The diminished size of Toronto's electronic-music scene is often lamented by those nostalgic for the days when they could find 15,000 other ravers to party with on a given record, yet the influence of those years now extends well beyond the confines of strictly "dance" genres.

Take electro-pop, for instance. Sure, the massive events are a thing of the past and some of our best DJs and producers have decamped to other global ports of call. But the rave years' legacy has intersected with the city's indie-rock underground to produce a plethora of well-regarded acts who prefer a little "pop" with their beats: Thunderheist, Woodhands, Crystal Castles, Lioness, Junior Boys, et al.

About to step into those ranks after a year or so of sorting out exactly who they want to be are Parallels, an arrestingly tuneful synth-and-drums trio that helps launch the city's annual Canadian Music Week festivities Wednesday night with a gig at the Roosevelt Room alongside DVAS, CFCF and Styrofoam Ones.

Parallels began as a mainly instrumental diversion for analogue-synthesizer enthusiast Cam Findlay a couple of years ago, but started blossoming into a nascent band when his friend Holly Dodson lent her pixie-fied coo to a few tracks. Suddenly, Findlay realized, he had a muse who could draw out his gift for hooks and humanize his chilly, Eno-esque, machine-made soundscapes with the vocals he'd never had much interest in writing himself.

"That's what we've always sort of been going towards, writing melodic pop songs," says Findlay. "Not necessarily pop structured, but creating things with a strong pop sensibility that still have that atmospheric sound we've always been into. ... It's more of what we don't have in common that works well, I think. We both write in different ways and they work well together."

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Parallels' arrival as the gleaming nightside-disco outfit that has just delivered the striking debut album Visionaries was delayed somewhat by Findlay's commitments to touring the world as the live drummer for Crystal Castles.

He finally left that band amicably a year and a half ago to pursue Parallels in earnest with Dodson – who, for her part, was just getting up the guts to actually sing in front of people, encouraged by her supportive rock 'n' roll dad, Rich Dodson, co-founder of '70s CanCon staples the Stampeders.

"He sat me down and said: `Just sing in front of me. I know you're writing songs secretly so just sing them to me,'" she recalls, grateful that her father was impressed enough to offer to release Visionaries on his own label if the need arose. "I know he wouldn't have touched it with a 10-foot pole if he didn't like it."

Keyboardist Joey Kehoe came on board a few months later, graduating from a borderline-obsessive fan of the original Parallels demos Findlay had posted on MySpace to a full-fledged member. The extra member made live shows possible, with Findlay somehow managing to keep the beat behind a real drum kit while triggering the many loops needed to keep the group's buoyant synth-pop afloat in full spectrum.

"We're trying to figure out ways to add a little more depth to the performance," Findlay says. "We're trying to build on what we already have, have a few more things maybe being played live. There's only three of us onstage, though.

"It's a bit limited, but I like the set-up right now. It works for what we're doing. If we're going to elaborate on what we're doing right now, maybe we'll add another member. But when the time comes."

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